The light breeze swished across Joe’s face as he entered the gates to his school. It was a cold Monday morning on October 20, a month away from his birthday. Joe and his friend Avery were playing around, when Avery suddenly says “Dude, I hurt my toe yesterday in an embarrassing way. I…. slammed the door on my toe.” “Does it hurt?” Joe said. “A little bit.” Avery replied. Joe playfully attempted to step on the grass, right next to Avery’s foot, trying to scare Avery that he was going to step on his foot. And coincidentally, he did, because Avery had just moved his foot at the last second, making Joe’s rather great day, horrible. Avery shoved Joe hard, sending him face first to the ground. Minutes later, they started walking to the classroom as Joe repeatedly said, “Sorry… sorry man” Avery said, “It’s ok.”

So it seemed as he was cool and understood the situation. Joe figured he should probably tell the teacher just to make sure he was okay and his foot was fine. After all, they were friends. Joe slowly approached the teacher, taking small steps until he reached the teacher’s desk. After a few seconds had passed, Joe finally spoke up. “I accidentally stepped on Avery’s foot. I really didn’t mean to.” The teacher replied, “Oh, the nurse isn’t in today. Let me check on Avery.” As she approached Avery, she gestured toward his foot and asked,“How did it actually happen?” the teacher asked. “Well, he said he kinda hurt his foot a little bit, and I playfully wanted to step on the ground right next to his foot to scare him, and he moved his foot at the last second.” “ARE YOU KIDDING? YOU CALL YOURSELF A FRIEND AND YOU STEP ON AVERY’S FOOT KNOWING IT WAS HURT?” The teacher was furious. “It… It was an accident.” His mind raced for ideas of ways to escape this problem, as he stood still as ice, barely looking at the teacher. Joe had literally 10 seconds to weave himself out of this problem, but the teacher just wouldn’t let him think, as she continued on with her rant. “WHAT DO YOU THINK HIS PARENTS WILL THINK OF YOU?” the teacher replied. It felt as though time froze, with Joe trying to take this all in. Today was not going to be a good day for Joe.

After two long hours, Joe finally got out for brunch. He walked towards the blacktop, sat on the bleachers and started writing his apology letter to Avery. As his friends walked by, they asked, “Why are you sitting there? C’mon let’s play!” “Sorry… I can’t. I’ve got a letter to finish” Joe said. His friends curiously asked, “What happened?” Joe hesitated. He wondered if he should tell his friends what happened. Would he get in trouble? Finally, he made up his mind and spoke up. “I stepped on Avery’s foot and got in trouble” “WOW,” his friends, with opened mouths shouted. R-r-ring. The bell had rung, and Joe started walking toward his third period class, where he knew another angry teacher would be waiting.

Joe, furious, wanted to smack his frie– Avery in the face.  But he figured that wouldn’t turn out best for him, so he waited for a week to find out why Avery had done that. A week later, he asked, “Ok, why did you over-exaggerate the time when I accidentally stepped on your foot?” There was a pause. “Because you didn’t eat lunch with me for a few days.” Joe, who kept his feelings to himself, kept calm. He was surprised, shocked and felt hurt. He had gone through so much trouble and bad days just because he didn’t eat lunch with Avery for a few days.

Joe wasn’t that type of person who cribbs about things, or goes after revenge on people. That day, the day Joe got in trouble, soon become a joke for the friends. Avery and Joe became very close friends and that day never loomed their friendship.